New Flat screen TV

Anything decent...after all, it's only TV!  (As he dives for cover....)

All kidding aside, TV is so much better than it was even 10 years ago, that I don't worry as long as it's a "known" brand (e.g., Samsung, Vizio, Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony, etc.) that you really can't go wrong.  At your level & size, just go name brand, LED, 1080P, and 120 Hz and get a good deal.  Picture quality beats the pants off anything we had even not so long ago, especially with HDTV.

I just bought a 39" Toshiba for the bedroom for $299 - it;a only 720P, but for bedroom it will be plenty good enough, and at that price it's a no-brainer...especially  considering that my first color TV in the early 80's was a 17" JC Penney (RCA) and I paid like $349 for it.

Sorry can't advise on TV choice, but one thing I would say is that if you will be using the TV's own sound system then it is likley to sound far worse than your CRT model. The slim cabinets of flat TV's simply don't allow for a decent sound in the majority of cases. So you will almost certainly need to get an external sound system of some sort if you don't have one already or are not using the hi-fi.

The Swami 

Thanks for the replies. My TV is HD but I need to go to a flat screen with a sound bar. I do not need all the extras but require a good picture quality.

B&O, Runco, and Elite brands come to mind.  All three strive to differentiate themselves from the more common brands.  All three are relatively expensive.

I looked at these and ended up getting a Sony KDL-55HX750 55", middle of their range, because I liked the picture well enough, and better than the two higher Sony models which have glossy glass in front of the screen.  I do not like the glare from glass, and, for some reason, the latest super-high-res screens give me a bit of a headache when I watch.  I don't do 3-D; it makes me ill.

Good luck!

Nick

All the current technologies are old hat. The best of the bunch is probably Panasonic's Viera TX-P60ZT65B (60") and TX-P65VT65B (65"). Samsung's top of the range plasma F8500 (64") is meant to be very good too. These are Plasma TVs so they consume more power than LCD (aka LED) TVs, but the picture tends to be better. LCD has improved significantly of course, and again I'd plump for Panasonic, although the Sony models are pretty good, and the Samsung E8000 gets a lot of good press.

All of these are Smart TVs so you'll still be paying for all the extras like internet, wifi, 3D...

Now, these provide good quality, no question. There's a lot of discussion about the 4K models, which seem to provide very nice pictures, and particularly good 3D, but I have no experience of those yet.

The technology we've been waiting for is OLED. In theory, this should take all the current technologies to the cleaners. OLED TVs were previewed at CES in 2012, but have since 'gone quiet' in the face of the 4K TVs which are more of the same old tech done a bit better. Not sure what the hold-up is on OLED. I gave up waiting and bought myself a Panasonic plasma a few weeks ago and I'm surprisingly impressed by it.

Finally, 65" is getting on for a pretty big screen. Are you sure you wouldn't prefer to save the TV for 'telly' (SOAPs, News, less important content) and use a projector for really intense viewing (movies, quality series)? A £3500 projector from the likes of JVC playing onto a cheap screen will give you a much larger (72" - 96"), yet high quality picture which is a completely different experience from TV - even a 65" TV - and in a suitably sorted room the projector will dominate less than a 65" TV. It's something to consider seriously.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

I agree with almost all the points Frank's made above. I recently went from a SIM2 projector system to a Panasonic TX-P65VT50B (nice snappy names, these TVs...) 65" plasma. This was for convenience - with a projector system you really have to watch in the dark and it's not something you can switch on and off too rapidly without adversely affecting bulb life. Due to room restrictions the projector screen size was restricted to "only" 6 ft across so the step down in size wasn't too onerous for me.

The Pansonic's a superb display, and although the latest crop of LED screens run it very close they don't quite match up, particularly in the area of black performance and contrast. Although I wasn't really bothered with 3D I have, out of curiosity, bought several 3D BluRay films & with the display settings properly optimised are mostly surprisingly effective.

That said, I still think if you've the room for a large screen, enjoy watching movies and can accept the constraints a good projector system's still the way to go.

Depends on the viewing environment.

Plasma (Panny VT or GT series) if the room isn't exposed to direct sunlight or Loewe for LCD (LCD is the better performer in brighter rooms).

Personally I have a Pioneer 507 50" (plasma). It's some 6+ years old now but still a lovely screen.

The current Panasonic's use Pioneer's screen technology which they purchased about 4-5 years ago. 

Thanks for the advice Gents!